THE CABIN ATTACKED.
Some of the mutineers now proceeded to throw various missiles, such
as cold shot, ship-buckets, spare or fallen blocks from aloft, the
carpenter's paint-pots, and so forth, into the ship's cabin; but only
in one instance, when Tom Bartelot received a contusion on the
shoulder, from a wooden marline-spike flung at random, did any of
these take effect, as our friends lurked securely, pistol in hand, in
the recesses of the upper stern-lockers, in the berths, and so forth,
but none as yet could foresee where this strife was to end, or who
would first come to terms, before the ship was utterly destroyed, as
it bade fair to be, if this internal war continued.
Now the voice of Barradas was heard, giving orders to cast loose one
of the carronades on the quarter-deck.
"What are they about to do with the carronade?" asked Morley, as he
listened intently.
"Lower it between decks, to fire through the bulkhead," suggested the
old man-o'-war's man, Noah.
"But have they any round shot?" asked Morley.
"We have six rounds for each gun round the coaming of the
main-hatch," said Captain Phillips, with a very dejected air; "and
there are plenty more in the hold. Shot are wanted sometimes in the
Indian seas."
"And the powder?"
"Is all kept in a little magazine near the taffrail--the powder
required for immediate service, I mean."
"The gun is cast loose," said Bartelot; "if Noah's idea be their
game, it is all up with us, as they may bowl us to death without
danger of resistance."
"Unless when they are at work in the hold, we make a sally, regain
possession of the deck, ship on the main-hatch, and smother the whole
brood!" said Phillips, with a more savage emotion than ever before
glowed in his kind and jolly breast.
A few minutes of painful suspense served to show that the intentions
of the mutineers were quite different.
They were heard to break open the powder magazine, and load the
carronade, which, with loud yells, and much vociferation, they urged
forward to the rim of the skylight with such force as nearly to break
the framework to pieces, and over it, by using capstan-bars as
levers, they levelled and depressed the gun, by hoisting up the hind
wheels of the carriage, and driving home quoins under the breach,
till the muzzle was at the angle of forty-five degrees, and pointed
almost towards the bulkhead of the little cabin in which Ethel and
Rose were weeping and praying.
Scarcely a moment was given for question or consideration, ere Quaco,
the black Virginian, came rushing aft from the caboose, with his
sable cheekbones shining, and his yellow eyes aflame, as he
flourished a red-hot poker, which, as an extempore match, he applied
to the touch-hole.
A sudden and blinding flash, with a cloud of suffocating smoke,
filled all the cabin, and there was a report, or concussion, which
made the ship reel to her centre; a hundred splinters seemed to fly
in every direction, but still no personal danger was done, though the
gun had been charged, not with round shot, but with a bag of nails,
nearly all of which crashed through the centre of the mahogany table,
and lodged in the deck below.
It was not until the first blink of dawn that those in the cabin knew
this; their first idea being, that a round shot had been sent through
the vessel's bottom; but, mad and furious though the mutineers were,
there was a method in their proceedings, and to utterly destroy the
ship was no part of their daring plan.
Wailing cries of terror came from the ladies' cabin, and wild and
noisy ones from the old nurse; but no one was hurt there, though all
were nearly stifled by the smoke of the discharge, ere it rose slowly
through the open skylight, and floated away into the still night air.
As the sailors were withdrawing the gun, taking advantage of its
recoil, a volley of pistol-shots from below whistled about them, and
Dr. Heriot, with a steady aim of the fowling-piece, sent a charge of
buck-shot from both barrels into the face and shoulders of one
fellow, who was immediately borne forward to the care of Quaco, who,
greatly to his own delight, and with all the mingled fun and cruelty
peculiar to his dingy race, proceeded to extract them from the
bleeding wretch, more curiously than skilfully, with the prongs of a
carving-fork.
They now lashed the gun to its port again, and retired forward, to
consult probably.
The ship's bell was no longer struck to call the watches, but the man
at the wheel was regularly relieved, and, though sometimes exposed to
shots from the cabin, he was never fired on. Under her courses and
other lower sails, the ship was steered to the north-east, but her
exact course those in the cabin knew not, as the tell-tale compass
had gone to wreck long ago, under the missiles showered so liberally
through the skylight.
By the sounds that came aft from time to time, it was evident that
the crew were eating, drinking, and making merry in the region of the
forecastle; but the fears of those in the cabin were increased by
this hilarity, which increased the evil chances that overhung the
ship, if a gale came on, and found her with her crew and rigging in
such a state of disorder, and half the main-hatch open!
As day dawned, and the armed lurkers in the once trim cabin looked
around them, its aspect filled them with exasperation and dismay.
The mahogany table, polished to perfection by poor Joe, was split,
and literally torn to pieces by the contents of the carronade; and
below it, the planks were thickly sown with nails. All the missiles
we have enumerated, the fire buckets, double and single blocks,
six-pound shot, holystones, and "prayer-books," &c., encumbered the
floor; and there, cold, white, and ghastly, lay the stiffened corpse
of the unfortunate Mr. Quail, with many a spot and patch of blood,
that had dropped from the cuts and scars of his companions.
Taking advantage of the lull in the hostilities, Morley, Bartelot,
and Noah Gawthrop added all the missiles that strewed the floor to
the barricade behind the cabin-door; Mr. Foster procured more caps
and ammunition for their fire-arms; Heriot prepared plasters and
bandages for their flesh wounds and bruises, while Mr. Basset and the
captain took some wine-and-water, with biscuits, to Ethel, Rose, and
their old attendant, as the only breakfast they had to offer. After
this, unknown to their fair friends in misfortune, Morrison and
Foster made preparations to launch the mortal remains of the poor
mate into the deep.
No time was there then for prayer or homily.
The body was simply rolled up in a blanket taken from his own bed,
lashed tight at the head and foot with a piece of rope. To the
ankles were lashed four of the shot with which the rascals on deck
had favoured them; and, opening one of the large windows next the
rudder-case, they permitted the body to drop gently, feet foremost,
into the pale-green water that seethed under the counter.
It could be seen sinking slowly far down into the depths of the
morning sea, where it vanished; but not soon enough to elude the keen
instinct of some Cape pigeons and albatrosses, which gathered, with
ravening beaks and flapping wings, about the place where the corpse
went down, and where but a few spreading ripples appeared upon the
trough of the rolling waves.
By her frothy wake astern, the _Hermione_ seemed to be going through
the water at the rate of six knots an hour, for the breeze was fresh
and steady.
Some cold beef from the locker of poor Joe, and a glass of
brandy-and-water, were served round for breakfast; and none spoke,
though all thought of how they would fare when the last drop of water
in the cabin was gone!
So passed the noon.
The ill-fated ship still ran north-eastward, increasing hourly, as
Captain Phillips said, her chances of being overhauled by some
homeward-bound ship--a chance on which their hopes of succour mainly
depended now.
END OF VOL. II.
CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE
End of Project Gutenberg's Morley Ashton, Volume 2 (of 3), by James Grant